Photos

As you can see from the background, kid stuff is taking over our home decor. But, as the foreground demonstrates, Ben is not forgetting the grownup stuff.

Sophie & I have been swimming a lot lately, and dealing with afternoon grouchiness, and also deciding to switch to a preschool with longer hours — which I’ll blog about soon, after I attempt to finish all the research projects that I wanted to finish before Everett arrives.

What I have photos of is that, last weekend, we camped at the beach.

Friends joined us for whiskey and s’mores at sunset.

As I wrote on facebook, I can now confirm that people who are 8 months pregnant shouldn’t attempt to sleep in a tent. But, since I have trouble sleeping anyway at this stage of pregnancy, I figured I might as well not-sleep someplace beautiful. I got to see a 2am rave on the beach (which at first resembled a bad sci-fi movie, with its flickering lights and ambient trance music, until I figured out what it was), and the moon’s arc across the sky, 5am leaping dolphins, and a 6am beach-rescue. Soph liked the beach-rescue, too: an elderly surfer hurt his back, and watching all the other surfers, early-morning-beach-walkers, and emergency personnel who came to help was exciting. What toddler doesn’t like multiple sirens and knowing that help is on the way? We also got to see impressive sand-castle-building, and the slightly-more-disturbing sight of Navy Seals training. Sophie’s conclusion: “Those men are exercising, but their teachers are mean.”

The biggest consequence from our weekend of beach-camping is that now Sophie is obsessed with David Wiesner’s book, Flotsam. I don’t mind (much) reading this two or three times a day, since it is an incredible book. Soph’s capacity to appreciate good stories is one of my favorite things about her four-year-old-ness.